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The present invention relates to the general field of computers, telecommunications, and computer and Internet related systems. More specifically the invention relates to systems and processes to be used in a business systems platform generally used to integrate disparate business applications systems in an efficient manner, across multiple hardware platforms.
The Internet and other communications networks provide a mechanism for communication and transfer of data between a wide variety of systems and platforms. There is a need for a system for managing the exchange of data and information among applications which may be housed on disparate hardware platforms and in diverse locations. Moreover, there is a need for a system that provides standardized access to connectivity with other systems and platforms in a users network.
Prior art systems of this type typically have an infrastructure which is tightly coupled to application products, specific hardware platforms and specific Operating systems and related services. Such systems are difficult to maintain, difficult to upgrade and difficult to extend to other applications as well as usually requiring redundant data input for their specific applications. In the past, developers have turned to object-oriented programming (OOP) to improve programming and code maintenance efficiency for such systems and to the use of hardware platform independent languages like Sun Microsystems(trademark) JAVA(trademark) language and system, as tools for developing such platform independent applications support systems. Until recently, the use of Java has been focused on the client side of the client-server system architecture with the development of JavaBeans(trademark) and Java servelet generation. More recently, the technology required to allow distributed objects to communicate with each other across either the client-server or server-server boundary has been provided by the EnterpriseJavaBeans (EJB)(trademark) component architecture. This new architectural system and related tools and systems are well documented and well known to those skilled in these arts.
Attempts continue to be made to employ these new systems and architectures in the process of building generic applications systems platforms, in an attempt to make the applications platform independent of a given hardware and software platform, and to make them easier to use by developers and end-users. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,363 issued on Sep. 26, 2000 to Eugene Buzzeo et al provides an object-oriented, multi-threaded application development system and method for developing resource information software, wherein a three tier framework (web client and web browserxe2x80x94web serverxe2x80x94application server) is disclosed. The system disclosed uses JAVA objects as connectors, components, agents, event servers, common objects with which to build applications for database related applications which are hardware platform independent. The system described in this Patent tries to solve the problems of distributed object communications through the use of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and the InternetInterORB Protocol (IIOP). Such platform independent languages, tools and sub-systems, while ostensibly making it easy for applications developers to create new business applications, nevertheless present an overwhelming technical problem for a user with a need for an efficient, integrated business system. A system using one framework is unable to transfer data to a different framework, as systems implementing one framework will have a different application programming interface API than the application programming interface API of another system.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a modular interconnect system containing data import, export and event monitoring and reporting facilities which are protocol independent of related applications. There is a need for an interconnect system which implements a generic connector framework with pluggable system specific components utilizing native application programming interfaces of systems to manage export and import of data from external systems. There is also a need for such an interconnect system utilizing XML, and there is a need for reliable monitoring mechanisms for changes to data in external systems. The current invention provides these facilities and others in various new and novel ways as more fully described below.
The present invention presents a method for managing data exchange among systems connected via a network. A plurality of predefined stylesheets are generated, with each stylesheet describing a mapping between a system specific local format and a generic interchange format. A data object is received from a first system in a first system specific local format. This data object is translated from the first system specific local format to a generic interchange format object with the predefined stylesheets using a system specific service component which utilizes a native application programming interface of said first system. The data object is then translated from the generic interchange format to a second system specific local format object with the predefined stylesheets using a system specific service component which utilizes a native application programming interface of said second system. The translated data object is then transferred to the second system.
In one embodiment of the invention, the step of receiving a data object from a first system in a first system specific local format includes receiving a request to export a data object from a first system, identifying a local data object identifier utilizing a mapper component, identifying a document type utilizing a mapper component, identifying a stylesheet and transformer using said document type, and extracting the data object from the first system.
The present invention presents a system for managing data exchange among a plurality of systems connected via a network. The system comprises a network interface, memory storing data and programs of instructions, and a processor coupled to the memory which executes the programs of instrucitons and accesses the stored data. The programs of instructions comprise a first component for translating a data object from a first system specific local format to a generic interchange format object, a second component for translating the data object from the generic interchange format to a second system specific local format object, and a third component for transferring the data object between the first and second system. The first component further comprises a system independent service subcomponent and a system specific service subcomponent utilizing a native API of said first system to translate said data object to a generic interchange format object using a predefined stylesheet. The second component further comprises a system independent service subcomponent and a system specific service subcomponent utilizing a native API of said first system to translate said data object from a generic interchange format object to a second system specific local format object using a predefined stylesheet.
The system may also include a monitor component for monitoring changes of a data object at a system, with the monitoring component having both a system independent service subcomponent and a system specific service component utilizing a native API of the monitored system to monitor changes of the data object. The system may also include a mapper component for identifying a local object identifier and a document type.
Still other embodiments of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein is shown and described only the embodiments of the invention by way of illustration of the best modes contemplated for carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of modification in various obvious aspects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.